Pat McCrory headed down the final stretch of his run for governor yesterday by painting his opponent, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, as a member of a "power elite" that needs to have its grip on the state broken.
McCrory, the six-term mayor of Charlotte, stumped mostly in the Triad, including a fast-paced speech before 60 supporters at the Broyhill Office Suites and Conference Center in Clemmons. He also spoke in Concord, Graham, Jamestown, Salisbury and Yadkinville.
As in other appearances in the state, McCrory dedicated most of his Clemmons speech to rebuffing Perdue's political advertisements, which accuse him of wanting the state to accept garbage from New Jersey and New York to create jobs, and favoring urban over rural areas in paving roads.
"They are total lies, made up," he said.
McCrory said he would have vetoed the 2007 Solid Waste Management Act, which would have restricted the location of new landfills in the state. He has said he would have vetoed the bill because it would have cost North Carolina residents jobs, hurt the economy and raised taxes.
"She is willing to do anything to keep power," McCrory said. "If we don't turn out and we don't win, the power elite will continue to control the power structure in North Carolina, and portions of the state, like this one, will continue to be left out."
He included Gov. Mike Easley, Sen. Marc Basnight, the president pro tem of the N.C. Senate, and Sen. Tony Rand, the Senate majority leader, as members of the power elite.
Tim Crowley, Perdue's press secretary, defended the accuracy of her political ads yesterday. He said they are based on statements McCrory has made.
Most polls have the governor's race as closely contested.
Both candidates tout 20 years of public service, and neither has ever lost an election. McCrory and Perdue would both be beating certain odds simply by moving into the governor's mansion. No woman has ever been governor of North Carolina and there have been only two Republican governors here in the past 100 years.
The Triad is considered a key battleground for the governor's race, particularly considering that the state's residents could elect the first governor from a metropolitan area since Jim Martin, also from Charlotte, who held the office from 1985 to 1993.
Both candidates have focused on the Triad recently, with Purdue appearing twice in Winston-Salem since Oct. 24. She is tentatively scheduled to appear in the city again Monday, according to Crowley.
Although McCrory appealed to the Republican base with his speech, he acknowledged he needs the votes of Democratic and unaffiliated voters to get elected.
According to the N.C. State Board of Elections, as of yesterday there are 2.8 million North Carolinians registered Democratic, nearly 2 million as Republican and nearly 1.4 million as unaffiliated.
"I have been able to make that appeal as a Republican mayor in Charlotte," McCrory said. "My leadership style has tended to attract crossover voters.
"We need a governor who is more accessible, who is willing to shake the status quo of state government. I have not been afraid to chastise the left or the right, because I want to solve problems."
■ Richard Craver can be reached at 727-7376 or at rcraver@wsjournal.com.
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